I Won't Let You Down At Least When I'm Awake, Anyway
by Reginald Kastle
Summary: The transition from hammock to sharing a bed with two other people was never going to be easy. {zexal rarepair challenge} pairing three - freesiashipping/kotoryoyuu


"Oomph."

Ryouga hits the floor hard; wind knocks completely from his lungs as eyes tear open from sleep. The events that have led him to this position – eyes open wide as he stares at the hardwood flooring in front of him; flooring that he _knows_ he didn't close his eyes to when he fell asleep last night – are lost to him until he rolls to his back and stares at the starred ceiling above him. The decals shine in the darkness, and each piece falls into place – _I fell asleep, I've fallen out of bed_ – and though there's the initial thought of _how on earth is that possible_, it's only a few seconds before there's the _oh, there's there a totally reasonable explanation for this_ passes through his head.

It's reasonable, he assumes, though he's sick to death of it and despite his insistence to stay in his hammock when they sleep, it's really not fair on him or Kotori and he can pout and whine all he wants but this is when he puts his foot down, only now instead of dealing with pouting and whining he's apparently been dealing with tossing and turning and based on the throbbing coming from various patches of his legs, kicking as well.

[How he managed that with Kotori between them, he'll never know]

It's almost as if even the thought of her sends a shock through his body and knocks the breath straight from the lungs –her hair, longer green locks that have a nasty habit of ending up in his mouth when sleep consumes the three of them together – it's almost as if he can taste it now, and with a hesitancy that he's only learnt from years of ending up in the position that he's been placed in now, he opens his eyes and-

"Kotori get your hair out of my mouth, that's gross."

He spits the words as quietly as he can, silence consuming each words and swallowing them as a mess of green hair pulls up to face him, sheepish grin crossing her as she sweeps her hair from his mouth.

"Sorry Ryouga." She laughs despite herself, too distracted at noticing how perched she became upon his chest to notice his anger towards being crushed. A finger trails up his chest as she giggles, waiting patiently for hardened eyes to soften and a chuckle pass his own throat.

"He kick you out of bed too?"

"Yeah, third time this week!" she dissolves into a mess of giggles, joined only by a quiet chorus of masculine laughter from him as they both try and ignore the fact that well yes, it _had _been the third time this week and yet it's only _Wednesday _added only with a _how is it humanly possible to kick not one person out of the king bed they share, but two?_

With a defiant huff, Kotori pulls herself from Ryouga's chest and peeks over the side of the bed; as expected, Yuma has spread himself as far along the bed as he can. It's no help that he's a long, lanky man instead of the tiny male she met when she was younger, so fingertips reach from one end of the bed to the other, just millimeters from hers. Various ideas run through her head; ones she'd never even consider implementing and it's at the point where glances are passed between the two and hushed whispers of _maybe we should buy him a hammock just to actually get a good night's rest for once_ pass through each other's lips. Something she knows he loves about her and the same with him is each other's tenacity, and though it's at the point where they both want to give up, stubbornness won't let them and now they _have_ to win out against this.

Working against a common goal seemed easy at first, but then again _nothing_ with Yuma is going to be easy, and it's only then that the final, perfect idea clicks through her mind.

She doesn't bother asking Ryouga for his opinion, only disappears from on top of him and yanks him to his feet. A wordless glance passes between them, lips curling upwards and it's certainly not every day that she can impress Ryouga in that way and she'd _never_ give him the satisfaction of knowing that was her original goal. She instead ignores him, focusing on the spread out male in front of her and with a feat of strength that comes with living with two very competitive males, she pushes two manicured nails under his body and rolls him to his side of the bed.

[It's not enough to simply go back to sleep because that would mean him winning, and losing is not something Kotori enjoys doing.]

With a defiant huff, ignoring the mess of a body that is Ryouga trying to climb into bed, she pushes Yuma again. He teeters upon the edge of the bed for a few seconds and she's almost lost hope; there's no way she can be bothered to push him again, especially now that Ryouga has resigned himself between them with a sigh; she's not sure she'd have the physical power when he's placed between them.

With a sigh, she gives in and crawls next to Ryouga, hands enclosing around him in a last ditch effort to steal some of his warmth – if there's only the slightest chance of actually getting to sleep on the bed, the chances of getting a blanket or the doona are basically nonexistent. Her eyes finally soften to a close, encouraged by wandering hands over her skin only to be shaken awake by a loud _thump_ and a moan echoing from the other side of the bed.

A protective instinct overwhelms her and she tears herself to the other side of the bed, eyes wandering over the male's skin to see if he's suffered any more than the slight bump on his head he's sporting with a scowl; it's the closest thing she can find to an injury and snickers, slender fingers closing around her petite lips in an effort to hide herself from him.

Yuma pulls himself over the side of the bed, scowl only increasing as he sees her doing her best to not laugh only to fail and let a burst of laughter fall from her lips.

"Oi, don't hog so much of the bed, it's not fair!" he snaps, pulling himself back onto the mattress, only to face a very angry woman holding her hips in defiance before him. He automatically looks to Ryouga for help, who groans loudly, throwing the sheets over his head and ignoring the both of them as Kotori yells _are you kidding me, Yuma Tsukumo?!_

He's not sure what he's done, but whatever it is, she's not happy about it and all he knows is that he's going to pay for it.


End file.
